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wingedblooms · 2 months ago

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Ooh things just got so interesting with that post from courtofmaas and your post prompted me to perform quick research.

1. Below the Edge of Darkness explores bioluminescence, which of course only truly manifests in the dark. In my research, it’s described as “cold light” as it produces less than 20% heat. Most of this light manifests as blue-green but, depending on the organism, can be in the red or yellow spectrum as well. The enzyme that compels the chemical reaction is called LUCIFERIN. Light that is emitted by certain fungi when decaying wood is called foxfire. The main uses for bioluminescence is to: hunt prey, defend against predators, and find mates. I think SJM is doing research on this bc the love “triangle” b/w Elain, Az, and Lucien.

2. The Once and Future Sex discusses the breaking of the mold of medieval women and essentially is a case study. VERY INTERESTINGLY, two of the women discussed are Eleanor of Aquitaine and Hildegard of Bingen. Eleanor was a queen and well known for learning the art of diplomacy and power brokering and demanding a divorce against the king, I’m sure among other things, illustrating the important of women life on their own terms. Hildegard of Bingen played the harp, was a nun (I’m not sure if canonized a saint, but the process had at least been started) and was well known for having “visions.” In retrospective studies, it’s believed that the visions were interpretations of auras that she saw while experiencing migraine headaches. She stood for mercy, peace, and love.

Elain’s book is 100% next. Azriel and Lucien will both play important roles in this book as accessories to her personal growth, but truly, it seems to me that light shines best in the dark. Like bioluminescence. And I can’t wait for the discussion on women’s roles in society and how Elain is going to break the mold.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this information and your excitement with me. 🥰 While those books could just be topics Sarah is interested in, it is fun to consider how they apply to her writing.

Bioluminescence is really fascinating to me, and given how important light is in all her series, I think it makes sense for Sarah to be exploring that topic (for fun and for research). One light that she returns to repeatedly in her writing is Hope, as @psychologynerd and I were discussing the other day.

Hope is the only light that shines in the Void. The scene where that light of Hope is explained is thematically important, and it shows up in each sister’s journey and the friends they surround themselves with. When Elain asks about that light, the weaver explains:

The weaver explained to my sister, “I made it after I mastered Void.”

I stared at the black fabric that was like peering into a pit of hell. And then stared at the iridescent, living silver thread that cut through it, bright despite the darkness that devoured all other light and color. (acofas)

Hope is living light, just like bioluminescence is living light. It requires characters to face darkness, no matter what it is (a feeling, power, or place). When asked how she did it, the weaver goes on to explain:

“I have to create, or it was all for nothing. I have to create, or I will crumple up with despair and never leave my bed. I have to create because I have no other way to voice this.” Her hand rested on her heart, and my eyes burned. “It is hard,” the weaver said, her stare never leaving mine, “and it hurts, but if I were to stop, if I were to let this loom or spindle go silent…” She broke my gaze at last to look at her tapestry. “Then there would be no hope shining in the Void.” (acofas)

Since Hope is living light, it should be no surprise that it is connected to creation (and, in my interpretation, Wyrd—the mother to all, cauldron of life, and weaver of fate, and no I don’t get tired of saying that 😂). And it is no surprise that each sister engages in creation in various ways, especially Elain. She was pulled from her black pit of despair, a void, by Azriel when he figured out she was a seer. She began to create again soon after this scene with Nuala and Cerridwen, her newfound friends. And her first plan post-war is to build and restore gardens, bringing more life and beauty and joy to the world around her. She creates even though it is hard and her heart still hurts.

Beyond the clear theme of Hope and Void, I think it also has implications for Elain’s gifts. Elain’s strength lies in her ability to see life and beauty and joy where others cannot.

In dark and decaying things.

In scarred hands.

This strength is one of the reasons many of us think she was gifted with such powers, including access to a murky realm where dream and reality entwine. I’ve talked about how that murky realm might mimic the black depths of the Cauldron, which is the darkness of both a womb and a void (which now makes sense, knowing what we do about how the Asteri warped it). @offtorivendell and others have discussed the need for darkness in order to see light, and the same is true for bioluminescence. Sometimes, you have to turn out the lights to see the light and life around you.

I think that might be true for Elain’s gifts, especially when she is tracking down someone or something (she closes her eyes to look across the world, like mystics seem to do in CC). It would make sense that this power might be connected to tracking life in the darkness of her sight. Those with earthen magic are also able to sense natural channels of magic (ie, ley lines) in the world. They become uncomfortable in places where those channels are warped and the natural magic of the world cannot flow freely, restricting access to their life-giving magic. Many of us believe Elain was gifted this kind of magic, and it would explain her physical discomfort and deathly complexion in the Hewn City, where channels of the earth’s natural magic, of life. have clearly been warped.

This book could also have supported Sarah’s writing of adventures outside of Elain’s murky realm, in the very depths of the earth…where it is also as dark as the Cauldron. Like this sequence:

Bryce knew it wasn’t endless only because far, far below, water roared. A large subterranean river, if the sound was this loud even up here. Bits of spray floated from the darkness, the damp air laced with a thick, metallic scent—iron. There must have been deposits of it down here.

Nesta said with equal quiet, “That bridge is the perfect place for an ambush.”

“From who?” Bryce hissed.

“I haven’t lived long enough to know every horror in this world, but I can tell you that dark places tend to breed dark things. Especially ones as old and forgotten as this.”

Then Bryce’s star illuminated the rock framing the tunnel’s mouth.

She ran.

A teeming mass of things crusted the entrance, smaller than the beasts beneath the dungeon, but almost worse. Cruder, more leathery. Like some sort of primordial bat-lizard hybrid. Black tongues tasted the air between flesh-shredding, clear teeth. Like the kristallos, bred and raised for eons in darkness—

A few of the creatures leapt, swooping into the void below, off on the hunt—

The tunnel, the bridge, rumbled.

Bryce staggered, the drop looming sickeningly closer, and a white wave of panic blinded every sense—

Training and Fae grace caught her, and Bryce could have wept with relief that she hadn’t tumbled into that void. Especially as something massive and slimy lurched from below, the size of two city buses.

An enormous worm, gleaming with water and mud. A mouth full of rows of teeth opened wide and snapped— Bryce fell back on her ass as the worm caught three of the flying lizards between those teeth. Swallowed them all in one bite.

Her starlight flared, casting the whole cavern in light and shadow.

The creatures on the walls screeched—either at the worm or the light—flapping off their perches and right into the creature’s opening jaws. Another snapping bite, river water and metallic-reeking mud spraying with the movement, and more vanished down the worm’s throat.

Bryce could only stare.

Her eyes swept over Bryce in a warrior’s wary assessment. “What manner of power is it that you possess? What sort of light is this?”

Bryce slowly shook her head. “Light. Just … light.” Strange, terrible light from another world, she’d once been told.

From this world.

They crossed a stream, wide enough to be a river, but shallow and rocky all the way across. Her blazing star, thankfully, pointed to the tunnel on the other side. No swimming necessary this time. As they crossed, the star illuminated slimy white creatures slithering out of their path. Bryce reined in the urge to cringe down at them. Or at the iron-rich water scent that stuffed itself up her nose. She said, if only to distract herself from the gross fauna of the stream, “Did the Fae make these tunnels?”

Bryce’s starlight in the darkest depths of the earth has a few different purposes, including lighting her path and repelling certain creatures bred and raised in darkness. Since the Asteri buried many other secrets in the earth, we’re bound to explore them in the next acotar spin-off book.

Sarah returns to light and dark repeatedly across her series, especially when Elain and Azriel share scenes. One of the fandom’s favorites is when Sarah explicitly tells us that light and dark meet when their hands do, the legendary Truth-Teller a bridge of power between them. Power lies in the space between them, so what might happen if they bridge that space?

I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection…that knife. (acowar)

Sarah reinforced that concept in hofas with this:

With a prayer to Cthona, she sent twin beams of light arcing around the prisms, shooting straight into them.

Twin bursts of that light flared from either prism, gunning for each other. Bands of light falling into darkness, her power stripped to its most elemental, basic form. They shot for each other, and where they met, light and darkness and darkness and light slamming into each other—

Bryce stepped into the explosion in the heart of it. Stepped into her power. It lit her up from the inside, lit up her very blood. Her hair drifted above her head, pens and papers and other office detritus flowing upward with it.

Such light and darkness—the power lay in the meeting of the two of them. She understood it now, how the darkness shaped the light. (hofas)

I cannot wait to see how this comes into play in the next book, especially as we explore dark places like Elain’s sight, the womb of the earth, subterranean waterways, etc.

The other book, The Once and Future Sex, also sounds interesting and applies to Elain’s story so well. In a discussion of the book, the author talked about the importance of social constructs—and how social constructs can be deconstructed. It makes me think about Elain’s upbringing and role, and how she is perceived by others. There are so many assumptions made about her character and they are sometimes contradictory. I think that was purposeful and we’re in for some surprises related to her character. Sarah reinforced that in different ways in the original series, first spin-off book, and bonus chapters. Turns out, sweet and proper Elain has claws after all and she isn’t afraid to make a move on the fearsome shadowsinger and spymaster. I know not everyone agrees, but I for one find that very interesting.

#this is for fun 🥰#elain archeron #azriel shadowsinger #elain x azriel #elriel #light and dark #and the power that lies in the space between them #elain’s vision and gifts #mystical earth magic #natural magic of the earth

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